6 Number of runs Cubs scored

37% Percentage of games this season (23 of 62) in which the Cubs have scored 6 or more runs

45% Percentage of games last season (73 of 161) in which the Cubs scored 6 or more runs

4 Number of runs Cubs scored in Thursday’s 8th inning

1 Number of other times this season the Cubs have scored that many runs in an 8th inning

3 Number of games in which the Cubs have trailed entering the 8th inning but gone on to win. (Team’s record in those games is 3-25, .107)

8 Number of games last year in which the Cubs trailed going into the 8th but still won. (Cubs’ record in those games last year was 8-49, .140)

.250 Cubs’ batting average (2-for-8) with runners in scoring position yesterday.

.227 Cubs’ batting average with RISP so far in 2009; ranks last in NL.

.278 Cubs’ batting average with RISP in 2008; ranked first in NL.

2 Number of hits Alfonso Soriano had in yesterday’s victory, including the game-winning hit in the last of the 9th.

35 Number of games last season (out of 109 played) in which Soriano had 2 or more hits in 2008.

14 Number of games this season (out of 60 played) in which Alfonso Soriano has collected 2 or more hits.

25 Number of games Alfonso Soriano went in between 2-hit performances—last one was on May 17th v. the Astros—but maybe yesterday was a start.

First of all, I fully realize how cynical it is of me to dwell on the negative following a 14-inning victory which allowed the Cubs to capture a road series and gain a game on all three teams ahead of them in the National League Central race.

But honoring incompetence is fun, and there was just so damn much of it on display Sunday, holding a bat and wearing a Chicago Cub uniform, that I just can’t help myself.

Here are the three most damaging moments in Sunday’s Cubs/Reds game, as measured in terms of Win Probability Added by Baseball Fan Graphs:

#3. Alfonso Soriano’s strikeout against David Weathers in the ninth inning, with the potential lead run at third base and two out. WPA -12.3%

#2. Micah Hoffpauir’s pop out against Jared Burton in the tenth inning, with the bases loaded and two out. WPA -17.5%

And the most damaging moment on Sunday…

#1. Geovany Soto’s double-play ball against Francisco Cordero, with men at first and second and one out in the 13th inning. WPA -22.3%

Interestingly, Soto, who didn’t start the game and didn’t even enter the frey until pinch-hitting for Aaron Heilman in the top of the ninth, accumulated a WPA of -33.6% in just four, fruitless at-bats.

And Alfonso Soriano, whose 14th-inning home run proved the game-winning blow, increased the Cubs’ probability of victory by 33.2% with that one stroke. Up until that point in the game, however, Soriano, who was 0-for-5 before hitting in the 14th, had a cumulative WPA of -20.2% for the afternoon.

For the last several weeks, I have been spending more time than is probably healthy with the MLB.com iPhone app. For much of Sunday’s Cubs/Astros game, for instance, I tuned into the call of Brett Dolan and Dave Raymond on Houston’s KTRH.

I really enjoy experiencing a Cubs game through enemy eyes. The descriptions of Wrigley Field and the view of Lake Michigan from the Wrigley pressbox are positively fawning. Each time I hear them I am reminded of what a singular place the corner of Clark & Addison truly is. I also find it fascinating to hear which aspects of particular Cub players attract the visiting announcers’ attention.

During Sunday’s broadcast, Dolan and Raymond went on at length about the peculiarities of Alfonso Soriano. They talked about the height of his socks, how he stands on top of home plate, the size and weight of his bat, his predilection for swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, his general dangerousness.

As Soriano stepped to the bat in the Cubs’ half of the third inning, Dolan talked about how, when he connected for the game-winning hit on Saturday, the Cub leadoff man had swatted a LaTroy Hawkins pitch which most other players wouldn’t have offered at. Even as the play-by-play man spoke, Soriano dragged his big bat through the hitting zone to lift a Brian Mohler pitch that was almost in the dirt for yet another bad-ball base hit.

The Houston announcers said that pitching to Soriano is always difficult business, but never more so than in the first inning, going on to mention his 53 career leadoff home runs. On the surface, the comment made sense, but I wondered if Soriano really is a more lethal hitter in the first inning.

It turns out he is…sort of.

In his career, spanning 1,239 games and 5,499 plate appearances, Soriano has, in fact, hit many more home runs in the first inning—63 total, including leadoff and non-leadoff—than in any other. Of course, that is to be expected given how frequently in his career he has batted at the top of the order.

But even in terms of home run frequency, Soriano been more of a home run hitter in the first inning than in any other, averaging 15.3 plate appearances per home run in the opening frame. The third inning (15.6 PA per HR) and sixth (16 PA per HR) come next.

Measured by OPS, however, Soriano has been much more productive in the sixth inning—960 OPS vs. just 912 in the first inning, still his second most effective inning.

As for Sunday’s contest, though Soriano had two hits, including a ninth-inning home run, the visitors prevailed, ending the Cubs’ five-game win streak, and I assume Dolan and Raymond went home to Houston happy.

Stats from Baseball-Reference.com